| | |
Scrying can variously be defined as a technique of divination or revelation, of producing visions, perhaps of the future, through prolonged gaze at an object, usually of crystal or liquid nature. Scrying was famously practised by the 16th century astronomer, mathematician and alchemist John Dee with the assistance of presumed imposter Edward Kelley. Their well documented story is inscribed within a fiction or history of modern science with which this project is concerned, again with a focus on the questionable nature of revelation.
The primary function of the scrying boards is to divine a hidden city, an alternate electromagnetic architecture with lines of transmission, but rather of resonances undone from the intentionality implied by the political terms of receiver and transmitter. The scrying boards reveal a ghost city and are implicated in a dissection of the doublings and ghostings (poltergeists, actions at a distance) within so-called modern electronics and physics (science) with which previous work with the crash and xxxxx events has been occupied. At the same time the idea of revelation is very much a concern, building on work with the idea of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) as a black box, as a hidden code interiority within the existent/world. The notion of the CPU is concerned with the black-boxing of technology and a notion of a hidden interior, technology as an interiority. Scrying boards are presented as open hardware, and equally are occupied in a mapping of such interiority into the world as a philosophical question concerned with rationalism.
The scrying boards will equally be used to divine and contain hidden data sources, functioning as low power data repositories within the spaces of the city. Scryers wandering the city will interface by way of their modular scrying kit with such pools of data which can later be made manifest by software. The boards act as detectors, in the manner of early radio ghost detection, and containers for future divinations. Thus one further functional model is presented by alternative systems of message distribution such as the W.A.S.T.E. system elaborated within Thomas Pynchon's novel, The Crying Of Lot 49.
The scrying boards are designed with free software principles in mind, and bear a strong relation to open hardware as concept and as practice. The scrying project is concerned with a relation to technology which is exposed by the development of open hardware and open software; attempting to pose through practice a new relationship and ecology. At the same time the boards implement and project a modular, reusable architecture for mobile, artistic computing which could be of great use for future artists interrogating technology. All plans, designs are thus to be made freely available for re-working and customisation. Scrying kits will be provided by the artist at cost price.
The core scrying kit is composed of five (base) sets of modules:
a) Low power radio module - for mobile use within the city and connection to traditional computing devices (by way of a transceiver module) to upload/download scrying materials.
b) High power radio module - for long distance remote connection and control.
c) Direct radio module - for unmediated EM scrying.
d) RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) module for complex signals/data analysis in the spectral domain.
Each module will be self-powered where relevant and of a small size and intriguing design with attention to functional revelation and modularity.
Additional modules for city play include solar power connection modules, random data transmission modules, amplifiers and repeaters for local resonances.
Although the scrying practice of multiple individuals remains open to their own preference and folly, a typical scrying session could be defined with flaneurs stumbling unknown upon intriguing spaces of electromagnetic resonance discovered by others within a parallel, ghost city. Metal objects already present within the city, for example park fences or tram lines could be repurposed as antenna suggesting an other, electromagnetic architecture. Alternatively, more conventional messages, or data, for example, an image or a code fragment would be disturbed by transitions through the city, encountering random data modules. Such fragments could be replayed within alternate spaces. An active, doubled city is revealed through the scrying boards, just as the dual nature of (electromagnetic) waves as particles is revealed by a simple diffraction grating.
Further references:
xxx__
see also schematics, atmegascheme, cpu, lispcpu